Lasereth

Hear me out!!!!!! On slickdeals.net there is a mass herd of members who vote free fast food to the top as soon as it's posted because it's SUCH a great deal. Now I love deals, and I love food, but all it takes is a little critical thinking to prove that these fast food deals are a fucking ripoff.

The latest deal to make it big is a free Arby's sandwich. The deal requires you to visit Arby's site, sign up for their spam with a valid email address, and then print off the coupon.

The coupon requires you to buy a regular size drink. This is stated in the slickdeals thread, but it still gets voted to the top with the highest rating.

Let's go a little deeper into whether this is a slick deal.

First, one must consider the fact that you are now driving to Arby's to get this free sandwich. Unless you go to Arby's every single day, or unless Arby's is literally on your path to or from work, or unless you had plans to go to Arby's on the exact day of the deal, you are being inconvenienced by driving to Arby's. Gas isn't free! If you calculate how much gas one may use to drive to Arby's, it really isn't that much. But gas isn't the only variable cost associated with driving.

There are numerous research documents floating around the Internet that prove that driving a car in the US costs anywhere from $0.50 per mile to an astounding $1.00 per mile. Some of this cost is a sunk cost for owning the vehicle, such as insurance, but a lot of it is the variable cost I mentioned earlier -- the more you drive, the more it costs. The biggest factor in vehicle depreciation is mileage; therefore when driving a car, every mile depreciates it a little more. Other costs like tires, oil changes, various fluid changes, etc. are all based on mileage, and also need to be calculated on a per-mile basis.

Using this knowledge, if Arby's is 5 miles out of the way from your daily route, you have put 10 miles on your car, and used 10 miles of gas. For me, this is roughly $2.00 in gas. My car gets 20 MPG, 10 miles total, a gallon of gas is roughly $4.00, divided by 2, etc.

So now just to get to Arby's instead of going my daily route, I've spent $2.00 in gas. I'll be conservative and say that the variable cost of driving my car 10 miles not counting gas is $0.25 per mile, so that's $2.50.

We're now $4.50 in the hole and we haven't even consumed our delicious roast beef sandwich yet!!!!!!!

Now I'm at Arby's. Why am I here? Oh, right, I have a coupon for a "free" roast beef sandwich. But there's a problem: fast food places put a heavy discount on combo purchases. If you order a #1 combo, it's much cheaper than ordering the items separately. The coupon states that I have to buy a drink to get the free sandwich. Arby's is known for having higher than average fast food prices, so the drink is gonna be at least $1.50. If I purchased the combo, the drink would have been discounted to approximately $0.75. So there's a possible $0.75 loss compared to combo pricing.

Let's go over the logistics of going to Arby's and buying a sandwich. Buying a sandwich alone is somewhat logical; this piece by itself could be considered a snack. But we're forced to buy a drink! Now we have a sandwich and a drink. People typically don't go to a fast food place for a roast beef sandwich and a drink as a "snack." What if you decided to really stick it to the man and buy some fries to go with it? Now you have a whole Arby's meal, but you got the sandwich for free! Right??? Well, sure, but now we have to add the cost of the fries, and the extra you're paying because you didn't get a combo, but bought the items separately. The fries alone are probably $2.00 (I'm having major trouble finding Arby's prices on google), but the combo price is $1.00.

So now you've bought a combo for $3.50. The smallest combo Arby's has available. The combo is regularly $5.00, so you've saved $1.50.

So I've spent $4.50 on car expenses getting to Arby's, been forced to buy a drink whether I was thirsty or not, or whether I even drink soft drinks or not, then been temped to eat an awkward snack or make a meal out of it, both of which lose value due to not being in a combo. In the end the coupon has saved me $1.50, which brings our grand total to -$3.00, and being spammed with Arby's emails in your inbox.

I've lost $3.00 by using this coupon. This probably seems trivial to most people, but for me it's not about the lost money, or even the stupid roast beef sandwich. It's about people not critically analyzing a situation and making smart decisions.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know!!!!!!!!!!

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert